It turned out I was an hour early so I took refuge in the hostel kitchen and had a little nap. I didn’t get much sleep last night as there was an epic snorer in my room. I had my shuffle on full blast and I could still hear him. It wasn’t the most dulcet of tones to drift off to.
I checked out shortly before my pick-up was due and waited with a few others. Before I had chance to introduce myself, I was accosted by an overly-chirpy local. He asked where I was from. As soon as he heard that I was from England he did not stop talking to me for 15 minutes. It was impressive how he barely came up for breath. He mentioned the Chelsea match, David Cameron, the royal family, travelling, and then I sort of zoned out a little bit. Despite hardly saying anything, the guy proceeded to tell me I had a lovely personality and welcomed me to New Zealand.
As soon as he left, the bus arrived. The driver loaded our bags into the trailer attached. I was first and became embarrassed when I struggled to lift my bag up. I turned around and saw someone with a suitcase that was twice the size of mine. I felt a bit better about myself.
We made a couple more stops to pick up people and we were ready to go. At the last stop, a fellow passenger and I eyed up the bakery across the road. I drooled at the thought of a hot bacon and egg sandwich and a pastry. We were both tempted to dash across and get something as neither of us had eaten anything for breakfast but the fear of being left behind or holding everyone up prevented us from making our move. The driver took a lot longer than usual and we could have had time if we were stealthy enough.
With everyone on board, the driver introduced himself as Oscar (AKA Mud). Mud didn’t get off to the greatest of starts as the bus became stuck down a cul-de-sac. One poor passenger got out to help push the trailer back and hold on to it whilst Mud pulled the car around. Oops.
Slightly red-faced, Mud made a pit-stop along the way for breakfast. I had to settle for a McDonald's. I hoped it would be the first and last time I visited one in New Zealand…unless it was the only place to get free wifi. It’s not good for my arteries or my increasing waistline!
Saying that, Mud proposed we all chip in $5 and get some fish and chips for dinner. In his native accent it came out as fush and chups. He kept repeating it to the amusement of others. My taste buds tingled and I wanted that meal right away. Healthy eating will have to wait until I have more money.
After the cul-de-sac incident, it seemed that Mud's day was about to get worse. As we travelled onward from McDonald's, a few cars beeped their horns at us. I thought there might be something wrong with the trailer dipping into the other lane. A fourth car honked their horn and the front seat passenger shouted that we’d lost luggage out of the trailer. Oh dear!
Well I knew straight away that it couldn’t be mine as it weighs enough to pin most peoples’ bags in, never mind making a leap for freedom.
Mud pulled up at the side of the road dumbstruck. A truck pulled up in front of us and the driver got out and spoke to Mud. In a massive stroke of luck, another car pulled over and unloaded two bags which had fallen out of the trailer. That was an incredibly nice gesture and a dangerous one too. In the UK you’d have traffic cones and lane diversions round that thing!
It turned out the bags belonged to the same girl who got out and helped move the trailer. What a surreal day.
A few nervous passengers asked if they could check their luggage. At first Mud was quite laid back about it and said he couldn’t see any bags missing. The cogs ticked over a little and he probably realised what might happen if there were more bags missing. After a thorough check, everything was in order and we were back on the road.
We took a slight detour to the Stray office in Auckland for a briefing about how the pass works. I picked up a couple of bits of information and a massive pack of coupons which I’ll probably never use but it still makes me feel a bit better having them there just in case.
The team kept it brief and we were back on the road to our first stop – Raglan - within minutes. I got so wrapped up in figuring out dates and bus ticket bookings that I actually forgot what we were meant to be doing in Raglan.
Activity sheets were passed around for that day and the next day (Waitomo Caves). As Raglan is an excellent place to surf, a surfing lesson was the main activity for the day. There was nothing else scheduled. I didn’t fancy it as I had a couple of goes in Australia. Although the sun was shining it was still pretty cold. So basically I wimped out.
In an effort to feel all active and productive, I put my name down for an action packed trip at the Waitomo Caves. It was an Indiana Jones-style adventure full of rock climbing and abseiling. I already have experience in the Temple of Doom at Port Macquarie so this can be another notch in my Indiana belt.
The lodge we booked into for the night was very picturesque with it being located right within New Zealand bushland. At least here, the only thing that will be grabbing my attention at night is a glow worm. No venomous spiders, snakes or dingoes to dodge tonight!
View from outside my room
I checked in and lugged my suitcase up to the second tier of lodges. The rooms are spacious and only hold four beds which is a welcome break from the traditional 6+ that I’ve been used to in Australia (or a tent!).
It was such a beautiful day. After I dumped my stuff, I joined my roommates Liz, Gemma and Sarah in walking up to the viewpoint. Inspiration Point to be exact.
Hooray, there's sunshine in NZ still!
S to the T to the R to the A to the Y
We still had a couple of hours to burn whilst the others surfed. We decided to head to the beach to see them. Although we didn’t see surfers from our group, there were plenty of others out to admire. The swell looked awesome and surfers were tackling waves and staying on for ages!
The beach was made up of large rocks with small pebbled areas interspersed at random points. We sat down and soaked up the sun while we still could. The further south we head, the colder it gets.
There was still a while until we were due to get food but there wasn’t much else to do. We headed back.
Back at the room, Gemma noticed that there were dirt marks on her sheets. I’m not sure how they got there seen as Gemma was on the top bunk. Moments later, Sarah picked up a loaf of bread that had fallen out of their food bag. Puzzled, she turned to Liz and asked if she’d had any of the bread. We soon realised that we’d had a little visitor whilst we were out. I instantly thought it was a possum after my past experiences in Australia. It turns out a fat cat had stealthily broke into our room and had a feast. Very random.
*****
The time had arrived for fush and chups! Mud was asleep on the couch and didn’t look like he was moving any time soon. But I’m not a person to be messed with when I’m tired or hungry. I was both.
Everything became very confused and nobody really knew what was going on. Mud said earlier that he’d call ahead and pre-order the food but that hadn’t happened. We handed our money over and ten minutes later Mud came back in asking who of us had paid. Oh dear.
A group of us decided to stay back and wait for our food to arrive. Over an hour later and I was feeling sick with hunger.
The food was good but because I’d not eaten in so long, I didn’t feel too great afterwards. There wasn’t enough to feed everyone unfortunately. Some of the wiser travellers bought separate meals and had a good feed. Damn my laziness.
Once food was devoured we went out in search of the ping pong table. Along the way we saw glow worms in the bush. They lit up the way but we still didn’t know where we were going. Eventually we found the table in a warehouse. There were also sofas, music speakers and a fussball table. Awesome. What wasn't awesome were the spiders. One guy thought it would be wise to prod a massive hairy spider with a golf club. I made a swift exit soon after!
Regardless of the spiders, it was a nice way to wind down the evening. I went to the TV room and saw the back end of Dirty Dancing. This day has been full of surprises. It makes me wonder what else New Zealand has in store for me.
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